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University of South Florida Acknowledges Campus Once Belonged to Native Americans

University of South Florida Acknowledges Campus Once Belonged to Native Americans

“Acknowledging this is important to being able to start a dialogue.”

Such brave virtue signaling. The school’s diversity and inclusion committee was behind this effort.

NBC Miami reports:

University of South Florida Says Its Campus Belonged to Native Americans

The University of South Florida acknowledged this week that its campus in Tampa is located on land once occupied by the Seminole people and other Native Americans, an admission meant to give context to the Thanksgiving holiday most Americans are celebrating Thursday.

In a statement released earlier this week, the university’s department of anthropology said it recognized “the historical and continuing impacts of colonization on Indigenous communities.”

The Tampa Bay Times said the acknowledgement was drafted by a diversity and inclusion committee, which consulted with members of the Seminole tribe.

Native Americans were the first people to inhabit the Tampa Bay area. European forces brought disease, slavery and destruction to Indigenous cultures. During the Seminole wars of the 1800s, President Andrew Jackson called for the removal of the Seminole people from the area.

The acknowledgement “is something that’s been a long time coming,” said Sarah Taylor, a faculty member who chairs the diversity and inclusion committee. “Acknowledging the land you’re on and land you’re using is a traditional behavior of many Native American groups. It’s a sign of respect. Acknowledging this is important to being able to start a dialogue.”

Over the last decade, other universities, including Northwestern, the University of Illinois and the University of Connecticut have issued land acknowledgment statements.

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Comments

notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital | November 28, 2020 at 4:37 pm

How queer since Indians did not believe in ownership of land.

    Well, of course they did. They believed that if they could take land that was occupied by others and force them off of it then it was theirs. At least for as long as they could keep others from taking it from them.

    The real complaint is that the United States was so much better at this: when the USA took a piece of land it wanted, the land stayed took.

    What I really want to hear from these academics is, why didn’t these natives ever get around to building a college campus on that land when they possessed it?

Then give it back.

Enough, you whitened sepulchres.
Give it back, or STFU.

Progressive fascists are trying to make people hate the USA. The truth is that we treated the Indians better than they treated each other.

    The Friendly Grizzly in reply to ConradCA. | November 28, 2020 at 6:26 pm

    And, look what it’s gotten us.

    JusticeDelivered in reply to ConradCA. | December 1, 2020 at 2:57 pm

    The truth is that Europeans were more advanced, and they did a far more effective job of doing to natives, what they did to each other. Note that I am a quarter native, and I prospered because I accepted the situation and embraced learning and hard work. I did not drown my sorrows with booze, as was common with previous generations. I also recognize that my success mostly came from my 1/2 German & 1/4 other European ancestry. While natives may have admiral qualities, high intelligence is not usually one of them.

Native Americans were the first people to inhabit the Tampa Bay area.

I suppose that must be true, by definition. Whoever the first people there were, they were native Americans. But they’re very unlikely to have been the Seminoles’ ancestors.

European forces brought disease, slavery and destruction to Indigenous cultures.

Bullshit. Indigenous cultures had all three long before the first European ever heard of them.

During the Seminole wars of the 1800s, President Andrew Jackson called for the removal of the Seminole people from the area.

Curious construction there. “During the Seminole wars”. What were those, I wonder, and what brought them on? Aren’t they at least a little bit curious?

Yes Your Honor, I acknowledge that I watch TV on a television set that was once owned by the plaintiff and I recognize the historical and continuing impacts of theft on all victims.

Can I go now?

The Friendly Grizzly | November 29, 2020 at 9:51 am

Yes. The campus property was once held by “indigenous” or “native American” people. Someone came in and took it from them. A battle was fought and they lost.

Now, it is a university campus, and is, or at least pretends to be, a center for learning. What would those indigenous people have done with it? Turned it all into a casino?

    JusticeDelivered in reply to The Friendly Grizzly. | December 1, 2020 at 3:08 pm

    Isn’t gambling and use of alcohol similar? I have never had any interest in either, and I am surely better off as a result.

    I often teased my wife, who bitterly complained about my talking to others, she said I talked to them more than I talked to her. My response was that I did not watch sports, gamble or carouse, but if she preferred, I would trade talking for carousing.

Everything in the continental United States was once “owned” by Native Americans, you idiots!